INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Ukraine said Wednesday that its recapture of Robotyne village this week was a strategic victory paving the way for its forces to push deeper
into Russian positions in the south towards Crimea.The foreign minister's comments published early Wednesday came as Kyiv announced two
people had been killed in the "most powerful" aerial attack in weeks and Russia reported a drone strike on military aircraft in its
northwest.Kyiv launched a counteroffensive in June after stockpiling Western-supplied weapons and building up assault battalions.Progress
has been costly and staggered but Ukrainian forces announced they had pushed through key Russian defensive lines with the capture of the
hamlet in the Zaporizhzhia region this week."Having entrenched on the flanks of Robotyne, we are opening the way to Tokmak and, eventually,
Melitopol and the administrative border with Crimea," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said during an earlier official visit to
three explosions at around 5:00 a.m
(0200 GMT) as part of the country-wide barrage of 28 cruise missiles and 16 attack drones."We heard explosions, and we could see the flashes
through the window," Oksana Soloviuk, who lives next to one building hit by debris told AFP.Yevgen Ananenko and his father ran downstairs
when they heard the blasts and metal fragments cut into the side of their building."If it had fallen straight into the house, I doubt we
would have survived," he said.Military officials described the attack as "the most powerful" to hit the city since the spring, and
authorities said two employees of an infrastructure facility were killed by falling debris in the Shevchenkivsky district.Russian forces
launched groups of Iranian-made Shahed drones at the capital from different directions, and launched missiles from aircraft, the Kyiv city
military administration said.The Russian Defense Ministry said it had targeted Ukrainian operational and intelligence centers and that all
the assigned targets had been hit.Drone waveUkraine has meanwhile stepped up drone attacks inside Russia.It launched a wave of strikes
overnight, targeting an airport near the Estonian border and the Crimean peninsula on the Black Sea, Russian authorities said.The attack on
Pskov airport, roughly 700 kilometers (more than 400 miles) from the border with Ukraine, marks the latest strike far from Ukraine's
borders since Kyiv vowed to "return" the conflict to Russia in July.Governor Mikhail Vedernikov, who said he was at the scene of the attack,
posted a video online of a massive fire, with the sounds of explosions and sirens in the background.Authorities were assessing the damage
planes were damaged in the attack in Pskov, but there was no immediate comment from the Defense Ministry.Black Sea tensionsThe Pskov region
was previously targeted by drones in May.Authorities in the Bryansk region near the Ukraine border, southern Oryol region and Kaluga and
Ryazan regions, southwest and southeast of Moscow, all reported drones had been destroyed or downed.Air defenses also destroyed a drone
"heading for Moscow," the city's mayor wrote on social media, adding there were no casualties or damage caused
TASS reported that Moscow's Domodedovo and Vnukovo airports had been temporarily closed.Moscow and other Russian regions have been
targeted by almost daily drone strikes since Kyiv vowed this summer to "return" the conflict to Russia.The Kremlin said in response to
Wednesday's attacks that military experts were studying routes used by Ukrainian drones with the aim of preventing future attacks.Tensions
have also been building on the Black Sea since Moscow exited a deal allowing maritime exports from Ukraine, and threatened to attack cargo
ships using Ukrainian ports.Russia's Defense Ministry said Wednesday its fighter jets had destroyed several high-speed military boats in
the Black Sea around midnight Moscow time.It said the vessels were carrying Ukrainian special forces and claimed several dozen personnel had
been killed, without giving details on exactly where in the Black Sea the incident took place.Early Wednesday, Russian defenses also
saying.Sevastopol is the base of Russia's Black Sea fleet.Both Ukraine and Russia have ramped up activity around the strategic waterway
after the United Nations-brokered deal to ensure safe navigation for grain ships collapsed last month.
